The Gladiator

But Rocco gri

"Sj." Eduardo was gri

"But we're not moving!" Gianfranco said. Could it be that the Emperor had no clothes?

"It doesn't feel like we're moving, but we are," Eduardo said. "We'll be back in the home timeline in about ten minutes, and when you look at your watch it'll be the same time as it was when you left. Traveling between alternates is a weird business all the way around."

Gianfranco didn't know what time it had been when they left. He didn't know if Eduardo was pulling his leg, either. Pretty soon, though, if any of what the man from the home timeline said was true, he'd get the chance to find out.

Comrade Mazzilli was fit to be tied. A

"That cousin of yours-he's a snake in the grass!" Gian-franco's father shouted. "He grabbed the boy and took him away, and then-then he disappeared! With Gianfranco!"

"I don't know how he could have done that, Cristoforo," A

It didn't help. "I don't know how, either, but I saw it with my own eyes!" Comrade Mazzilli yelled. "Those thugs dragged poor Gianfranco down some stairs. There's no way out down there, no tu

He and Gianfranco's mother were in agony. "I'm sure Silvio wouldn't hurt him," A

"Fat lot you know about him. You're lucky he didn't grab you, too," Gianfranco's father said. "So what can we expect now? A ransom note?" Kidnappings for money didn't happen very often, but they happened.

"I don't think it's like that, Cristoforo," A

"Then where are they?" Comrade Mazzilli bellowed. "They have to be somewhere, but where?"

In the home timeline, I hope, A

"The Security Police say it's the best vanishing act they ever saw," Comrade Mazzilli went on, not shouting quite so loud. "They say stage magicians can't do any better. But what good does that do me? It might as well be real magic, because Gianfranco's really gone!"

"He'll turn up. I'm sure he will." A

And Gianfranco's father refused to be reassured. "I don't know how you can be so certain," he said. "Not unless you're part of the plot yourself, I mean."

"Cristoforo, if you don't know better than that, if you really mean it, we are going to have a problem," Dr. Crosetti said heavily. Sure enough, a world of trouble was in the air.

"Si, Comrade Mazzilli. That's just ridiculous," A

"I've already got a problem. And everything that's happened is ridiculous-and it all revolves around your miserable cousin," Gianfranco's father said. But then he sighed and shook his head. "No, I don't mean it. I've know all of you too long to believe such a thing. I was upset. I am upset. I have reason to be upset." His voice got louder again with every sentence. But nobody could tell him he was wrong, not without giving away all the secrets that had to stay secret.

A

"Of course you do." A

"Fat lot of good they'll do." Comrade Mazzilli didn't seem impressed with the forces of law and order. "For heaven's sake, those… people snatched Gianfranco right under their pointy noses. You think they'll find him? They couldn't find water if they fell out of a boat!"

"Are you going to play detective by yourself?" Dr. Crosetti asked reasonably.

"Well, no," Gianfranco's father said. "But waiting? I'll be climbing the walls-that's what I'll be doing. And so would you." Without waiting for an answer, he pounded out of the Crosettis' hotel room.

A

"Just pretty sure?" A

"Yes, just pretty sure," her father answered. "We know what Eduardo told us. We know what he showed us. But we don't know what he didn't tell us and didn't show us. How much of what we heard was true? How much of it covered up things he didn't want us to know?"

"You don't really believe that!" A

"I don't want to believe it," he said now. "But I hope more than I can tell you that Gianfranco comes back safe and sound-and soon."

For as long as he'd known about visiting the home timeline, Gianfranco had thought visiting it would be a lot like going to heaven. It seemed more like a visit to purgatory. He could see heaven from there, but the people in charge of the place didn't want to let him go out and touch it.

They didn't make any bones about why, either. "The less you know, the less you'll be able to tell the Security Police," said one of their officials in an accent that sounded just like his own.

"Are you nuts?" he squawked. "I won't tell those clowns anything. And they don't know anything about crosstime travel. They think I've been kidnapped for ransom or something. If 1 wanted to spill my guts, I could have done it a million times by now."

"He's right, Massimo," Eduardo said. "All he had to do was let out a peep, and the Security Police would have put me through the meat grinder. He never said boo. He didn't even give a hint. Nobody ever thought I was anything special, and that's thanks to him."

"And to A

"And to them," Eduardo agreed. "But you're here, and they aren't. And your being here is… well, a little awkward."

He might have said a big pain instead. Obviously, that was what he meant. Massimo said, "Keeping contamination to a minimum is standard Crosstime Traffic policy." He might have been a priest quoting from the Bible-or an apparatchik quoting from Das Kapital.

"Cut the kid some slack, will you, please?" Eduardo said. "We owe him a lot. / owe him a lot. Do it for me, not for him."

"And since when are you more important than a multinational corporation?" The way Massimo said it told Gianfranco that not everything he'd learned about capitalism was a lie. But then the Crosstime Traffic official unbent enough to add, "Well, we'll see what my superiors think." He sighed. "The least they'll do is drug him so he can't spill no matter what those goons try on him."